Here is an article I found doing a search of her name today. Please note, the date of her murder is January 1 and this date has been mistakenly posted as Jan 2. Seems there is a suspect and justice has been denied for Geraldine for 40 years.
http://www.winnipegsun.com/news/manitoba/2010/01/10/12408491-sun.htmlGot away with murder
Girl's death still evokes feelings of justice denied
By BOB HOLLIDAY
Last Updated: 10th January 2010, 4:51am
Lovely spring will soon be here,
Birds returning bring us cheer'
Welcome spring,
Welcome Spring
Spring was a favourite time of the year for 11-year-old Geraldine Settee and a favourite theme of poetry she loved to write.
Geraldine's poetry writing ended during the evening of Jan. 1, 1970, when she was stabbed to death minutes after she left her St. Vital home to walk to a drugstore to purchase soft drinks and potato chips.
Swanson's Drugs, then located on the southeast corner of Inman Avenue and St. Mary's Road, was less than two blocks from the Settee home at 813 St. Mary's Road. When the young girl arrived about 8:30 p.m., she found the store in darkness so she turned for the short walk home. As she walked past a small bushy area about 35 metres south of Fermor Avenue, St. Vital police believed she was attacked from behind by her killer. Her killer may have even stabbed her before dragging her into the bush, now a parking lot for a fast-food restaurant.
The body of the pretty, wide-eyed girl was found around noon the next day. She had been stabbed six times and may have been alive when left by her assailant, lying unconscious in the snow.
Police were stymied to come up with a motive behind the killing since Settee was liked by all she met since moving to the city from Matheson Island in Lake Winnipeg where he father operated a ship doing government hydrographical survey.
"She was everybody's favourite. To Geraldine, the world was a wonderland. She loved everyone and everything," said older sister, Pat Thomas.
Not random
Geraldine's goal in life was to become a teacher, added Thomas.
Former St. Vital police officers believe the killing was not random.
Even 40 years later, some believe a schoolmate, who has gotten away with murder, targeted Geraldine. Those officers believe her perverted killer taunted police by calling 999 (forerunner to 911) around 11 a.m. Jan 2 to tell authorities where her body could be found. The officers still believe he was the same person who randomly called the family in the years since, and he was most likely the same person who made threatening calls to Geraldine on Dec. 5.
The caller told Geraldine he was a classmate and warned he was "watching her."
Five days after the murder, someone claiming to be the killer called the Settee home and named his next victim, a friend of Geraldine's.
"She's next on my list," was the ominous warning.
Police took the warning to heart and supplied protection for the girl.
"It seems a real kook or screwball is on the loose," said St. Vital Chief Const. Forbes Parker.
Police believe the killer may have staged a couple of practice attacks a week earlier.
In one instance on Dec. 26, a 14-year-old girl was assaulted and threatened with a knife as she walked along a back lane less than a block away from where Settee was killed.
She told police she was forced into a Hull Avenue garage at knifepoint. When she screamed, her youthful attacker ran away.
Some officers believe the attack may have been a case of mistaken identity and the killer thought the girl was actually Geraldine Settee, since the attack took place very close to the Settee home.
Nineteen months later, a 16-year-old classmate of Geraldine was charged with non-capital murder. The charge was laid after the juvenile was arrested for unrelated incidents, but provincial director of prosecutions G. R. Goodman admitted he had been one of the people interviewed in the days following the discovery of the body.
Stunned
One of the officers who originally interviewed the accused still believes political pressure was placed on Chief Parker to curtail the questioning.
"The kid was ready to confess when we were told to stop," said the cop, who is still incensed about curtailment. "We knew we had the right person and we were not allowed to do our jobs."
The officer was one of many who were stunned by the news in June 1972, that the murder charges had been stayed by the Crown.
"Was it more political pressure?" wonders a former cop.
The accused was well known to the community as a bully who was quick to draw a five-inch knife on others, including one incident when he threatened a secretary at Windsor School. An army cadet, he often bragged about killing neighbourhood cats and squirrels.
Geraldine was stabbed with a knife with a five-inch blade. Any of the six wounds could have been fatal.
Has the killer of Geraldine Settee claimed the life of other Winnipeg women over the past 40 years? No one is able to say for sure, but since the main suspect has bragged to several people that he once got away with murder; it is not out of the realm of possibility.
The Sun thanks Aimee Fortier of Manitoba Justice and the staff at the Provincial Archives and Elizabeth Dafoe Library for their co-operation. Bob Holliday may be reached by e-mail at
onceuponacrime@shaw.ca.
Topic: Geraldine Settee - January 1, 1970 - Age 11 - St. Vital/Winnpeg - Murdered (Read 1556 times)
